


The Sheriff's Fear of the Pollen Count

by glitterfics



Category: Eureka
Genre: Community: smallfandomfest, First Time, Humor, M/M, Romance, Sex Pollen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2012-06-29
Updated: 2012-06-29
Packaged: 2017-11-08 20:12:25
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 6,212
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/447064
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/glitterfics/pseuds/glitterfics
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>This is what Jack's life had become, trying to rescue Nathan Stark from a bunch of overly amorous scientists who were under the influence of an experimental flower. </p>
<p>He used to have a real job.</p>
            </blockquote>





	The Sheriff's Fear of the Pollen Count

**Author's Note:**

> This was written for this summer's [smallfandomfest](http://smallfandomfest.livejournal.com) using the Eureka prompt: sex pollen. Contains: sexual content, extreme geekiness. Title from [The Divine Comedy song: The Pop Singer's Fear of the Pollen Count](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dFs261AKUZc).  
> Lots of love to my beta [lazydazy](http://archiveofourown.org/users/lazydazy) who beta-ed this super quickly for me.

Jack blinked as he finally managed to decipher the science-speak Henry and Fargo were throwing at him.

“You’re kidding me, right? _Sex pollen?_ ” he asked incredulously.

“Well, there’s a bit more to it than that but essentially? Yes,” Henry replied.

“Seriously?” Jack shook his head in disbelief. “Did we suddenly wake up in an episode of Star Trek?”

Fargo cleared his throat. “You’re thinking of Pon Farr. You know; the one where Spock goes all..?”

“I don’t care, Fargo,” Jack interrupted him to bring the conversation back on track. “So everyone who went into Café Diem today got infected and are…you know?” He flailed his hands a bit.

“Having sex all over town,” Henry filled in with a nod.

Jack pinched the bridge of his nose. “I guess that explains what I caught Jo and Taggart doing at the station,” he muttered.

And that was a side of his deputy that he’d never wanted to see, let alone Taggart. _No, no_ ; he stopped that train of thought right there and shook his head as if he could erase it from his brain like an etch-a-sketch.

“Bad images, bad!”

Henry shot him an amused look. “If that’s your reaction then you’d better not go up to GD.”

Jack groaned. “Don’t tell me, orgies in the lobby?”

“Actually, no…unless they were already into that sort of thing, I suppose.” Fargo stared off into the middle distance for a moment until Jack made an impatient sound. “Right. What I meant was that this stuff can’t make you act against your nature…well, it can because it’s making you have sex in public which I’m sure most people don’t want to do but, apart from that bit, it can’t. It won’t make you suddenly want to have sex with someone you didn’t already want to have sex with.”

“It wasn’t luck that made Jo end up with Taggart,” Henry added helpfully.

Jack vigorously shook his head again at that reminder before continuing. “Okay, so who do we know that’s definitely _not_ infected?”

“Well, Vincent didn’t put the flowers on the tables until after the breakfast rush and it’s only 2:30 now so all the kids and the teachers at the school are fine,” Henry pointed out while Jack thanked God for small mercies.

“Like teenagers would act any differently if they _were_ infected.” Fargo snorted and then his eyes widened at the glare Jack gave him. “I didn’t mean Zoe. She doesn’t act like that; she’s the sheriff’s daughter, no boys will go near her in case you kill them.” He gulped as there was more glaring. “And she wouldn’t do that even if they did and I’m going to stop talking now.”

“Good idea, Fargo,” Jack agreed, dryly.

“Although, I should point out that Dr Blake has the day off work because she has the flu,” Fargo said quickly to try and put himself back in Jack’s good books.

Jack immediately pulled out his phone and called Allison to be met by the sound of coughing when she answered. “Geez, Allison. You sound awful.”

“I feel just as bad,” Allison assured him in a raspy voice. “What’s going on, Carter?”

“We sort of have a situation but it’s nothing you need to leave your sick bed for. I just wanted to check that you haven’t been to Cafe Diem today.” Jack _had_ called with the expectation of getting Allison to help them but she really did sound bad so he took pity on her.

Allison was having none of it though. “What kind of situation? Why hasn’t Nathan called me about it?”

Jack sighed. “Apparently, Vincent picked up the wrong flowers from the botany dept to use as table centrepieces. He ended up with some kind of croaking flower.”

“ _Crocin?_ ” Allison gasped. “Dr Larsson’s experimental Crocuses ended up in Cafe Diem? That’s it; I’m on my way to the station.”

“No!” Jack yelped. “Don’t go to the station unless you want to be mentally scarred for life, trust me. We’re at Henry’s but we can come to you instead. I don’t want that flu getting any worse by you going outside.”

“Jack, you do know that there’s no actual medical basis for that, right?” Allison asked and, even through the scratchiness of her voice, Jack could hear a note of fond exasperation.

“There is if you crash your car because you’re too sick to drive,” Jack retorted with a grin. “We’ll be there within the hour. I’d offer to pick up some chicken soup for you but under the circumstances...”

Henry, hearing Jack’s side of the conversation, had already begun packing up some strange objects ‘that could come in handy’ by the time Jack said his goodbyes and they were soon in Henry’s truck on their way to Allison’s house. The streets were deserted, giving the town an eerie feel, especially when Jack could catch movements in the depths of the shadowed alleys. It was movement that he _really_ didn’t want to investigate though so he tried to keep his eyes straight ahead while he called the school and instructed the headteacher to lock up tight and keep the kids there until instructed otherwise.

As he hung up from that call his phone started to ring with another one.

“Carter, I tried calling the station but no one answered,” Stark’s familiar voice said down the line. “You need to come to Global, right now!”

“Yeah we know all about the problem, Stark,” Jack replied, keeping his voice light just to irritate the other man. “It’s not confined to GD, it’s all over town.”

Fargo leaned forward and looked at Jack wide-eyed. “Is that Dr Stark? Is he okay?”

“Was that Fargo?” Nathan demanded to know. “What the hell is he doing with you?”

“Okay, calm down. The both of you.” Jack looked pointedly at Fargo who seemed on the verge of panicking at Nathan’s yelling. “Fargo’s helping me and Henry try to figure a way to stop this whole croaking sex pollen thing.”

There was a pause on the other end of the phone before Stark spoke again. “Crocin pollen? How did that get out of the labs? That’s a restricted experiment.” 

Jack snorted. “Not restricted enough to stop a civilian wandering in to pick the pretty flowers.”

He briefly explained to Stark how the flowers had ended up at Café Diem and heard the other man start muttering, he was just about able to make out _morons_ and _so fired_.

Keeping his amusement to himself, Jack said, “Look, we’re on our way to Allison’s to come up with some plan of action. Can…?”

“No. You can’t go to Allison’s house,” Stark interrupted.

“Stark, you don’t have to worry about me and your ex-wife jumping each other, we’re not infected.” Jack rolled his eyes as Henry chuckled next to him. “Now, can you get out of GD to meet us there? Or do you need us to swing by and help you?”

There was another long pause. 

“There are a few people trying to get into my office,” Stark finally admitted. “I’m not sure I can get past them.”

“Of course there is.” Jack sighed. “Hold tight, Stark. We’re on our way.”

“Looks like you get to see what’s happening at GD, after all.” Henry smirked once Jack had hung up.

Jack leaned forward to bang his head against the dashboard a couple of times. “Where do I send the bill for the next hundred years of therapy this is going to give me?”

Henry just reached over and patted Jack’s shoulder sympathetically.

“Okay,” Jack rallied himself; he had a job to do. “Henry, drop us off at GD and then go to Allison. You two can get a head start on figuring out some kind of antidote. Fargo, you’re with me.”

Fargo’s eyes widened. “You want _me_ to go in there with you?”

Jack nodded. “Fargo, how many of those mousy scientists do you reckon are harbouring a secret crush on Stark?”

“Oh, loads,” Fargo answered. “And not just the mousy ones. Dr Wesley keeps pushing her boobs in his face every time they bump into each other. Dr Stark has forbidden me from letting her schedule a meeting with him. Ever.”

Jack snickered and then pictured the bio- _something or other_ scientist that Fargo was talking about and realised that he’d probably run in the other direction too. That woman was the definition of a man-eater.

“So, when Stark says that there are ‘a few’ people trying to get into his office, how many do you think there actually are?” he asked Fargo.

“Oh God. We’ve got to help him!” Fargo cried and Jack nodded again.

“You know there are more than a few scientists harbouring a crush on the town sheriff too,” Henry pointed out.

“That’s okay, I can throw Fargo at them while I run away.” Jack grinned at him.

“What?” Came the indignant squawk from the backseat of the truck and Jack and Henry burst out laughing.

Jack and Fargo climbed out of the truck when Henry pulled into the Global Dynamics parking lot.

Henry leaned out of his window. “Good luck, I’ll see you at Allison’s.”

Jack watched Henry drive off then turned around. “Alright, Fargo; lets do this.”

Fargo took a deep breath to steady his nerves and they both headed towards the building.

“In a world overrun by a crazy sex epidemic; two men stand alone…together. With only their street smarts and witty banter to help, they must face off against crowds of women desperate to sleep with them, in order to find a cure.”

Jack stopped walking and raised an eyebrow at Fargo.

“Sorry…” Fargo coughed and stopped speaking in the movie trailer voice. “I thought it might help. You know; a male bonding kind of thing.”

Jack rolled his eyes and started moving again. “Come on, hero. Stick to my side and do everything I say. We’ve got to try and do this without hurting anyone.”

Fargo grinned at the title Jack had given him and followed eagerly through the main doors. They both came to a halt at the same time.

“Holy…” Jack trailed off as he took in the scene in the lobby. “Oh, I am going to need a ton of brain bleach after this.”

There were couples everywhere, in varying states of undress, some of them doing things that Jack had only ever heard about.

“How can anyone be that bendy?” Fargo squeaked, staring in horror at one of the GD guards and the girl who manned the reception desk.

Jack grabbed Fargo’s arm and dragged him forward, trying to focus on the stairs and nothing else. It was made a little difficult by the fact that they had to pick their way around some of the couples but they eventually made it up to the next floor. Now they just had to navigate the corridors leading to the entrance to Stark’s office. His windows were all blacked out, not that Jack could blame him considering the current view, but he couldn’t tell if Stark was okay in there or not.

“Well, hello there,” a throaty feminine voice said behind them and Jack turned around to see a drop dead gorgeous woman in a lab coat…and only a lab coat. 

“Umm…look…” Jack started but stopped as the woman stepped closer to Fargo.

“I see you running around the building all the time but we’ve never had the chance to speak before, isn’t that funny?” She stroked a hand down the side of Fargo’s face. “I’ve always thought that you were just adorable, though. Maybe we should take the time to get to know each other a little better.”

Both Jack and Fargo’s jaws dropped open. 

Fargo looked at Jack then back at the woman and back to Jack again. “Run, Sheriff! Save yourself!”

“Oh no, you don’t!” Jack took hold of the back of Fargo’s shirt and pulled him away from the woman. “She’s under the influence of the pollen; you’d be taking advantage of her.”

“But…look at her!” Fargo protested. “And she must have liked me _before_ the pollen.”

Jack didn’t have a chance to reply however as the woman suddenly launched herself at him. “You let him go! He’s mine!”

“Whoa!” Jack fell backwards with the woman on top of him, trying to claw at his face. “Fargo, grab the tazer from my belt!”

“I can’t tazer her; she’ll never have sex with me!” Fargo protested.

“Jesus Christ!” Jack muttered, still struggling to hold the woman’s wrists. “Fine, pull her off me!”

Fargo leaned down and put his arms around the woman’s waist and she immediately stopped fighting. Instead she breathed, “Douglas…” then grabbed Fargo’s head and pulled him into a heated kiss.

Jack scrambled out from beneath her, yanked the handcuffs off his belt and snapped one end around her wrist and the other around the bars at the top of the stairs. She let go of Fargo and started struggling, trying to get out of the cuffs. While she was distracted, Jack yanked a dazed looking Fargo to his feet and pushed him down the corridor.

“But I don’t even know her name,” Fargo whispered, looking back over his shoulder at the scientist who was now yelling after them.

“I’m sure you can find out after all this is over,” Jack told him. “But right now, we need to rescue Stark. Remember? Your boss?”

“Okay.” Fargo nodded. “And she’ll like me even more for not taking advantage, right?”

“She’ll think you’re a _real_ hero, Fargo.” Jack slapped his back reassuringly. 

Fargo straightened up at that. “In a world where women have been reduced to their primal urges, two heroes…”

“I wouldn’t do that in front of her,” Jack advised. 

“Huh, you could be right because Jo doesn’t like it at all,” Fargo said thoughtfully. “It must be a girl thing.”

“They’re weird like that.” Jack slowed as the reached the end of the corridor and peeked around the corner towards Stark’s office door.

It was still shut which was the good news; the bad news was the crowd of women and men banging against it trying to get inside. 

“Is that Larry?” Jack asked incredulously, staring at the guy at the front of the crowd.

Fargo knelt down so that he could look around the corner too. “Oh, he is such a kiss-ass! As if Dr Stark would sleep with _him_.”

“We need a distraction,” Jack muttered. “Something to get them away from the door.”

Fargo looked up at him. “Fire alarm?”

Jack shook his head. “I don’t think they’d pay any attention to it when they’re in this state.”

He slumped against the wall and tried to think. He looked back the way they came and could still just about hear the scientist yelling for Fargo and screaming obscenities at Jack.

“Huh.”

“What?” Fargo asked.

“That woman got really angry when she thought I was trying to take you away from her.” Jack frowned. “An extreme reaction to someone trying to take what they want…she forgot about you and came after me.”

Fargo nodded. “So, if one of us persuades that crowd that we were trying to take Stark away then they’ll come after us instead.”

Jack just looked at Fargo.

“Oh no!” Fargo said vehemently. “I’m not doing it, that’s a whole mob and they’ll be an angry mob. That never ends well and you promised you were just joking about the throwing me at people thing!”

Jack snuck across the corridor and tried one of the doors. It opened, revealing an empty office and Jack motioned Fargo to join him. 

“You just need to get them riled up and then duck in here and lock the door,” he told Fargo. “I just need enough time to sneak past them, grab Stark and get him out to his car. Then I’ll come back for you, I swear.”

Fargo shuffled from foot to foot as he looked around the office nervously. “What if they break through the door?”

“They haven’t managed to break through Stark’s door,” Jack pointed out. He paused and then played his ace card. “What would Buffy do, Fargo?”

“Whatever it took,” Fargo answered and then raised his head to look Jack in the eye. “She’d do _whatever it took_ , Sheriff.”

“Good man.” Jack grinned at him and then began to outline his plan.

Jack was back in his position against the wall, around the corner from Stark’s office. He looked over at Fargo and gave him the thumbs up. Fargo took a deep breath and nodded determinedly at Jack before stepping out into the corridor and walking closer to the small crowd.

“Hey!” he yelled and all the noise they were making immediately stopped. “You all may as well go home; Stark’s mine!”

“Get lost, Fargo,” Jack heard Larry sneer. “Nathan doesn’t want a loser like you.”

“Oh yeah? Well, that’s where you’re wrong, _Larry_. He phoned me and asked me here. Now, why would he do that, huh?” Fargo answered and Jack was proud of the steadiness of his voice.

“You’re lying; he didn’t call you,” Larry said but Jack could hear some doubt creeping in.

“He doesn’t want you,” a woman’s voice called out. “He wants me; that’s why he always yells at me; it’s his way of hiding the sexual tension.”

“Oh, good god!” Jack rolled his eyes and dropped his head back against the wall in disbelief.

“He’s always catching my eye!” Another woman yelled. 

“I want to touch his beard!” Yet another cried causing Jack to blink in confusion.

“If he wants you, then why hasn’t he opened the door?” Fargo asked them. “And why did he call _me?_ Why does he _always_ call me?”

There was murmuring at that as they were probably remembering all the times that Stark really had called Fargo, or yelled for him. 

“You know…” began a man whose voice Jack didn’t recognise, “If Fargo doesn’t show up to this little meeting then we’ll still be in with a chance.”

“Gotcha!” Jack said under his breath.

There was silence for a moment and then Fargo said, “Why are you all looking at me like that?”

“Get him!” Larry yelled and a loud hollering started.

Fargo ran passed Jack’s hiding place and ducked into the empty office. He slammed the door shut just before the entire crowd converged on the door, yelling and banging on it.

Jack kept his eye on them as he edged his way around the corner then moved as quickly and quietly as he could to Stark’s door. He began tapping on it and hissed Stark’s name but nothing happened. He glanced back at the crowd to check that they were still occupied and went to tap a little louder when suddenly his cell phone started to ring.

The hollering stopped and when Jack turned around he saw that the crowd had frozen and were staring at him in shock. 

“It was a trap! The sheriff wants Stark!” A tiny brunette woman gasped. “We can’t let him go in there!”

“Shit!” Jack cursed and spun around to bang loudly on the door. “Stark! It’s Carter, let me in!”

He heard the sound of footsteps running towards him and banged the door again, falling forward when it suddenly opened. A hand reached out and grabbed him, stopping him from landing on his face, and pulled him into the office. Stark shut the door behind him and hit the button for the locks as the banging started again.

Jack dropped into one of the chairs in relief and then jumped as his phone started ringing again.

“What?” he snapped as he answered it.

“Jack, did you make it to Nathan?” Henry asked.

“Yeah, I just managed to get into his office.” Jack forced his voice to a more normal tone. “You would not believe how much effort that took.”

“I’ve checked the files that Allison has here and I think we may be able to make an antidote,” Henry told him. “But we’ll need you to pick up a few things on your way back.”

Jack huffed out a breath. “We might have a problem there. I got into Stark’s office but I’m not sure that we can get back out again; there’s too many people out there and they get aggressive towards anyone they perceive as a threat to their…love or whatever they think it is.”

“They’re showing aggression?” Henry sounded surprised.

“I just had some woman try to claw my face off for trying to take Fargo away from her,” Jack said. 

As he spoke, Jack realized that Stark wasn’t adding much to the conversation so he looked up to find that Stark was leaning against the wall with his arms crossed, smirking at him.

“It must be some side effect that hasn’t been noted yet,” Henry was muttering on the phone.

Jack put his hand over the speaker while Henry was figuring things out and frowned at Stark. “Do you know of something that can help?”

Stark shrugged. “Not really. I was just enjoying the view.”

“Excuse me?” Jack’s eyebrows reached his hairline.

“I think we’re stuck in here, Jack.” Stark raked his eyes over Jack. “However will we pass the time?”

“Oh my god!” Jack pointed at him. “You’re infected! You’ve been to Café Diem!”

“What?” cried Henry, able to catch that as Jack’s hand was no longer muffling his end of the phone.

Stark smiled. “Actually, not since last night. I’ve just figured out a few things; mainly the fact that I want to tie you to my bed and make you beg, Sheriff.”

Then he pushed himself off the door and walked to Jack who was gaping at him and trying to wrap his head around what Nathan had just said. Leaning down Stark took the phone from Jack’s slack hand.

“Hi, Henry. I’m afraid that Jack’s going to be a bit busy for the rest of the day. You’ll have to figure this one out without him,” he purred into the phone before hanging up.

The sound of the phone clattering onto the desk snapped Jack out of his stupor and he jumped up out of his seat, putting space between him and Stark.

He put his hands out placatingly. “Stark…”

“Nathan,” Stark corrected him as he took a step forward.

Jack backed up a few more steps. “What are you doing?”

Stark chuckled. “I would have thought that was perfectly obvious, Jack.”

The way that Stark lowered his voice to say his name caused Jack to flush; that was a bedroom voice if ever he’d heard one.

He swallowed hard. “You don’t want to have sex with me, Stark…”

“Nathan,” Stark corrected him again and Jack sighed.

“Fine, _Nathan_. You don’t even like me.”

“Apparently I do.” Nathan paused and tilted his head as he studied Jack as if he was a particularly tasty dessert. “I just didn’t realise it before.”

“Because you’re infected!” Jack yelled. “It’s messing with your head.”

Nathan took another step forward. “Even if I was… Henry did explain how the Crocin pollen works, right?”

“It doesn’t make you want to sleep with someone you didn’t already want to sleep with, Fargo told me but…” Jack broke off in shock as Nathan growled.

“Fargo can’t have you. Allison either; you’re mine!”

Jack’s eyes widened and he pointed at Nathan accusingly. “That’s why you got so mad that Fargo was with me when you called. _And_ why you didn’t want me to go to Allison’s house.”

Nathan growled again and Jack sighed, deciding to go back to his original point. The room was beginning to get really warm and his head was spinning a little; he needed to get out and get some fresh air.

“We fight all the time,” he pointed out. “We fight over Al… _your ex-wife_ the majority of that time. I don’t know why you suddenly believe that I’m the one you want but you need to try and push all of this to the backburner while we figure out a way to get past your fan club outside.”

As he said that, there was an almighty crash from the other side of the door and Jack’s head whipped around to look at it, half convinced that they’d managed to break through. Nathan took advantage of his distraction and pounced, pushing Jack to the floor and straddling him. Jack tried to shove him off but Nathan grabbed hold of his hands and held them to the floor above his head.

“Sta…Nathan, you really don’t want to do this,” Jack said as he twisted and tried to get Nathan unbalanced but Nathan wasn’t listening to him, he was frowning at something behind Jack.

Jack strained his neck to follow Nathan’s gaze. There was a small posy of red flowers tucked underneath the sofa; flowers that fit the description Henry had given him of the stupid croaking flower.

All the fight went out of Jack and he slumped to the floor, closing his eyes. “Damn it.”

No wonder Jack’s head was spinning; he’d been infected too.

“Someone did this on purpose,” Nathan said, then he dragged his eyes away from the flowers and looked at Jack pinned beneath him. “Hmm…maybe I should send them a thank you.”

He transferred the hold he had on Jack’s wrists to one hand and used the other to stroke Jack’s jaw. Jack gasped as a trail of heat followed the path of Nathan’s hand and he looked up at Nathan in confusion.

“It’s starting to work on you already, isn’t it, Jack?” Nathan smiled at him. “Making you realise how much you want me; that all that fighting we do was actually masking _this_. How didn’t I see it before?”

“Nathan...” Jack shivered as Nathan continued stroking his hand down Jack’s neck and dipped under his collar. “We have to fight this.”

“You’ve been driving me crazy, Jack Carter,” Nathan said, his hand caressing Jack’s chest now. “Standing up to me when any sane person would’ve backed off, flirting with my ex-wife and making me jealous...”

Jack tried to bite back a groan as Nathan’s fingers brushed over one of his nipples but he couldn’t manage it. Nathan gave a sinful chuckle and repeated the movement causing Jack to shudder. Nathan moved his hand to start undoing the buttons of Jack’s shirt, un-tucking it and the t-shirt beneath so that he could trail his fingers across Jack’s stomach.

“But she doesn’t get to have you like this; _I_ do.” The possessiveness in Nathan’s voice was just increasing the heat building inside Jack, hitting buttons he didn’t even know he had.

Fire sparked wherever Nathan touched bare skin until Jack’s world narrowed to Nathan and the sensations the other man was evoking in him. He whined in frustration and tugged against the hold Nathan had on his wrists, suddenly desperate to do some touching of his own.

“Nathan, please…” Jack gasped.

At that, Nathan’s eyes turned dark with hunger and he dropped down to crush his lips to Jack’s in a forceful kiss. He finally released Jack’s wrists so that he could bury his hands in Jack’s hair and all Jack could do was wrap his arms around Nathan to hold on for dear life as Nathan’s mouth possessed his, hot and bruising and so, so good. 

The need for air finally became too much and Nathan broke the kiss but started to nibble and lick his way along Jack’s jaw, down his neck, following the same path that his hand had earlier. Jack dropped his head back with a moan, giving Nathan more access. 

Nathan’s hands had moved down his body and were insistently pushing under his shirts again.

“Off!” Nathan ordered, backing away enough to help Jack pull both garments over his head before flinging them to one side and starting to unbuckle Jack’s trousers.

Jack’s trembling hands found their way to Nathan’s tie and, within minutes, the rest of their clothes lay scattered haphazardly around them while the two men writhed and rocked together on the office floor. Jack touched Nathan everywhere he could reach and couldn’t get enough. The feeling of solid muscle under his hands, the strong thigh between his…it was strange and exciting. Mostly, it just felt right and Jack was starting to agree with Nathan’s notion of thanking whoever hid those flowers.

“More,” Jack panted against Nathan’s collarbone not even sure what it was he was asking for. “Nathan, I need…I just need more.”

“Jesus, Jack...” Nathan groaned then pulled him into another deep kiss. 

He reached between them and took hold of them both with one hand causing Jack to throw his head back and moan at how great that felt but it still wasn’t enough. His moved his own hand to join Nathan’s wrapped around them and felt Nathan tremble against him.

They set up a quick pace, both too far gone to draw things out by this point. Jack buried his head in Nathan’s neck as the heat built up inside him then Nathan tensed all over, growling out Jack’s name as he came. His hand tightened around Jack and that was all it took for Jack to cry out and join him.

They both collapsed next to each other on the carpet, trying to catch their breath.

“You think that’s got it out of our system?” Jack asked, trying to prevent the awkward silence that was sure to descend on them at any minute.

Nathan turned his head to look at him. “The preliminary testing indicated that the effects would last for at least eight hours.”

Jack groaned and thumped his head against the floor. “Why would you even make this stuff?”

“Crocin has been shown to be effective in cancer treatments. Dr Larsson was trying to create a flower with a higher concentration of it for use in medicines and this was a side effect,” Nathan told him. “He’s been looking for a way to eliminate it but I’m beginning to see the benefits.”

As he said the last part, Nathan’s hand began tracing patterns on Jack’s thigh and the hungry look was back in his eyes. Jack felt that heat start to build again and he rolled over on top of Nathan.

“And here I thought it was going to be a bullet that killed me,” he muttered before leaning down for another kiss.

A week later Jack wearily locked up the sheriff’s office at the end of another long day. It had been the week from hell. Luckily it had taken Henry, Allison, Spencer and a few others that they’d managed to round up, a lot less than eight hours to come up with an antidote but that also meant there had been a lot of red faces all around when they had to tour the town administering it to everyone.

Jack and Jo hadn’t been able to take any time to recover, or hide away until the embarrassment faded, as they had to try and find out who was behind the whole thing; the flower hidden in Nathan’s office was proof enough that it hadn’t been an unfortunate accident.

It had taken a few days but they eventually discovered that Dr ‘Man-eater’ Wesley had grown tired of the fact that her _subtle_ seduction tactics weren’t working on Nathan and had gone for a more extreme method. She had switched the flowers that Vincent was supposed to pick up with, what Jo had dubbed, the Sex Flower from Hell and then snuck into Nathan’s office late at night with the ones she hid under his sofa. Obviously her plan had been to go to Nathan when he was fully infected but she hadn’t taken into account the fact that her assistant had a crush on her. She’d therefore spent the entire time locked in the tiny closet in her office to keep away from him.

When Jo had pointed out that there was a chance Nathan wouldn’t have had sex with her anyway, she’d looked at Jo as if she’d grown two heads. Apparently she felt that there wasn’t a man alive that didn’t harbour feelings for her and Jack didn’t think he had ever disliked someone so much in his life. The complete arrogance and stupidity of some people never failed to amaze him. It had been a pleasure to complete her redaction from Eureka and deliver her to the DoD.

The fallout from all of this was going to stick with Eureka for a while. People couldn’t look each other in the eye and the entire town felt subdued. Alison obviously didn’t know what to say to Jack after finding him with her ex-husband so kept their interactions brief and professional. Jo spent half the time hiding from Taggart while Jack made excuses for her and they’d both had to take statements from everyone who’d been infected which had been excruciating for all involved.

All in all, he was glad that the week was over and he could spend his day off moping around the bunker, watching baseball and trying to forget everything. He hadn’t spoken to Nathan since he’d practically run out of his office once they’d been cured and Nathan hadn’t tried to contact him so, obviously, he was trying to forget it too. It didn’t stop the dreams that had began plaguing Jack and left him waking up in a state he hadn’t been in since he was a hormonal teenager though and it didn’t stop his thoughts from constantly returning to Nathan and wondering what he was doing.

Jack climbed out of the car outside the bunker and scrubbed his hands over his face. He was turning into a teenage girl with a crush. He really had to stop thinking of Stark as _Nathan_ , it wasn’t helping matters. The sooner they all got back to normal the better, or as normal as Eureka got anyway. 

“SARAH, I need beer and lots of it,” Jack said as he walked into his house. 

He sent a prayer of thanks that Zoe was staying at Pilar’s and wasn’t around to badger him into phoning Nath... _Stark_ as she had been doing since she’d discovered where Jack had ended up during the whole debacle. He was refusing to discuss it with her but obviously she knew what had happened and, for some insane reason, thought it was romantic. He’d never understand women.

“This is ridiculous, you know,” Nathan said and Jack spun around to see him sitting in one of the armchairs.

“What are you doing here?” Jack demanded, refusing to acknowledge the effect that just seeing the other man was having on him.

Nathan raised an eyebrow at him. “We need to talk, Jack.”

“Oh, no good conversations have ever started with those words,” Jack muttered as he walked to the fridge and grabbed the beer SARAH had poured for him. He needed alcohol for this and judging from the whisky Nathan was nursing so did he.

Nathan chuckled humourlessly and actually looked a little nervous. “I’ll get straight to the point. I like you, Jack. It may have taken being drugged by a crazy stalker for me to see it and I wish that we could have maybe started out with drinks and dinner instead of...what happened but it doesn’t change the fact that I can’t stop thinking about you.”

That hadn’t been what Jack had been expecting. 

“Yeah, I’ve been kind of distracted too,” he admitted a flush rising in his cheeks. “I hoped that maybe it would go away but it’s been getting worse.”

The tension drained out of Nathan at Jack confession. “You left my office so quickly after Henry gave us the antidote and you’ve been avoiding me all week...”

“Hey, I’ve been a little busy,” Jack protested. “And you didn’t exactly go out of your way to see me either.”

“I wanted to give you some space,” Nathan told him reasonably. “I know you’ve never been with a man before and thought it might be freaking you out.”

Jack rubbed the back of his neck. “Actually it was more finding out that I wanted my big rival way more than the woman we were fighting over that was freaking me out. It was kind of a shock to discover that all the feelings I thought I had for Allison were actually about you.”

“Yeah, I know what you mean,” Nathan smiled then the smile turned a little predatory. “So, do you still want me?”

Jack’s stomach flipped at the now familiar look Nathan was pinning him with and he swallowed hard. “Yes.”

Nathan put his glass down on the table and walked to Jack. 

“God, I love how responsive you are, Jack. Absolutely gorgeous,” he said huskily as he rubbed his knuckles across the blush still staining Jack’s cheeks. “So, drinks and dinner?”

Jack chuckled and then took a step closer. 

“I think I’d prefer coffee and breakfast,” he said, eyes sparkling.

Nathan’s face broke out into a wide smile as he wrapped his arms around Jack’s waist and pulled him into a kiss.

The End


End file.
